Every man who has power is impelled to abuse it.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUThe false notion of miracles comes of our vanity, which makes us believe we are important enough for the Supreme Being to upset nature on our behalf.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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It is always the adventurers who do great things, not the sovereigns of great empires.
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Peace is a natural effect of trade.
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Religious wars are not caused by the fact that there is more than one religion, but by the spirit of intolerance… the spread of which can only be regarded as the total eclipse of human reason.
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…when the laws have ceased to be executed, as this can only come from the corruption of the republic, the state is already lost.
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I never listen to calumnies, because if they are untrue I run the risk of being deceived, and if they be true, of hating persons not worth thinking about.
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There is hardly any grief that an hour’s reading will not dissipate.
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Honor is unknown in despotic states.
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A man who writes well writes not as others write, but as he himself writes; it is often in speaking badly that he speaks well.
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Not to be loved is a misfortune, but it is an insult to be loved no longer.
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False happiness renders men stern and proud, and that happiness is never communicated. True happiness renders them kind and sensible, and that happiness is always shared.
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In bodies moved, the motion is received, increased, diminished, or lost, according to the relations of the quantity of matter and velocity; each diversity is uniformity, each change is constancy.
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Power should be a check on power.
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Laws undertake to punish only overt acts.
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Certain kinds of foolishness are such that a greater foolishness would be better.
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Europe is a state with several provinces
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU